The human consumption of grain legumes and pulses in Europe and the EU is lower than in other regions of the world. However, there is a lot of variation between countries and an overall slight increase has been observed in recent years. The major trends in the EU pulse market ...

In recent years, increasing interest in the format of multi-centric studies among different populations in developing nations has evolved in the field of health surveys and epidemiology. Dietary intake data are most often part of these cross-cultural and cross-national collaborative efforts. Various questions have been raised about the appropriate endeavours ...

The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry recently introduced a new subject matter category titled "Bioactive Constituents" to cover investigations of the composition of natural compounds and their biological activity in crops and foods. It is recognized by the Editors that a number of other journals specialize in various aspects ...

The world is food secure at the global level, yet nearly 800 million are food insecure. "Business as usual" is not going to bring us close to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of the population consuming less than the minimum energy requirement. So what has to ...

Africa remains the only region in the world where the number of hungry people will still be on the increase in 2020, and the number of malnourished children will have increased correspondingly. In this report I have acknowledged the general public policy trends across Africa in terms of macroeconomic policy ...

Changes in food production and dietary practices are occurring faster than our understanding of their potential impact on children's health. Traditionally, pediatric gastroenterologists have studied food with respect to its nutritive value and digestibility, its influence on metabolism, its growth-promoting characteristics, and its relationship to risk and severity of disease. ...

Identifying the determinants of population growth rate is a central topic in population ecology. Three approaches (demographic, mechanistic and density-dependent) used historically to describe the determinants of population growth rate are here compared and combined for an avian predator, the barn owl (Tyto alba). The owl population remained approximately stable ...

Population growth rate is determined in all vertebrate populations by food supplies, and we postulate bottom-up control as the universal primary standard. But this primary control system can be overridden by three secondary controls: top-down processes from predators, social interactions within the species and disturbances. Different combinations of these processes ...

Pharmaceuticals and vaccines made by genetic engineering are well accepted all over the world. In contrast, there are many people, particularly in Europe, who are worried that food, made by the same new technology, may harm their health or cause damage to the environment. This is despite the growing evidence ...

In the past decade, micronutrient malnutrition has been identified as a major underlying cause of numerous human health problems in developing countries. The international agricultural research system has been highly successful in producing crop varieties with traits desired by farmers, such as higher yield and greater tolerance of poor growing ...

House-sparrow populations have declined sharply in Western Europe in recent decades, but the reasons for this decline have yet to be identified, despite intense public interest in the matter. Here we use a combination of field experimentation, genetic analysis and demographic data to show that a reduction in winter food ...

Solutions to the problem of how the developing world will meet its future food needs are broader than producing more food, although the successes of the 'Green Revolution' demonstrate the importance of technology in generating the growth in food output in the past. Despite these successes, the world still faces ...

One key challenge for the twenty-first century is how to produce the food we need, yet ensure the landscape we want. Genetically modified crops have focused our attention on how to answer this question for one part of agriculture. The same principles could be applied to assess environmental impacts of ...

International food trade and world population are growing rapidly. National legislation has been enacted and implemented in many countries to assure good quality and safe foods to meet increased demand. No country is fully self-sufficient in domestic food production to meet population demands, and all require some food imports. Current ...

Recent advances in agricultural biotechnology have highlighted the need for experimental evidence and sound scientific judgment to assess the benefits and risks to society. Nutrition scientists and other animal biologists need a balanced understanding of the issues to participate in this assessment. To date most modifications to crop plants have ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the 1999-2000 food security situation and the food relief programmes in Ethiopia, and evaluate the need for a national food and nutrition policy. DESIGN: A systematic search of data sources from the Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), the Ethiopian Central Statistical Authority, the World Food ...

The following paper analyzes the economic and demographic factors determining the conversion of mangroves in the coastal provinces of Thailand to commercial shrimp farming. Mangrove conversion therefore is determined by the returns to shrimp farmers, (i.e. the price of shrimp), the input costs to farming shrimp (e.g. feed price and ...

Crop biotechnology is being used in two major ways to enhance human nutrition: to improve global food security by making more food available, especially locally grown and familiar foods in the developing world, and by enhancing the nutritional composition of foods that would interest both the developed and developing worlds. ...

Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have been manipulating crops to enhance their quality and yield. Via conventional breeding, seed producers have developed the modern corn hybrids and wheat commonly grown today. Newer techniques, such as radiation breeding, enhanced the seed producers' ability to develop new traits in crops. Then ...

This paper reviews examples of how measurements of global fallout in the environment and related tracer radionuclides have been used to enhance our basic knowledge of biogeochemical processes and food-chain pathways. Because it is these fundamental, natural processes that control the transport and accumulation of such trace substances in the ...

The use of the technology of genetic modification (GM) in European agriculture and the food supply chain is currently controversial. Because of strong anti-GM technology sentiments, the use of ingredients derived from plants containing GM have largely been eliminated from foods manufactured for direct human consumption by the food supply ...

An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in the massif of Montseny (Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula), a mountainous UNESCO's biosphere reserve that summarizes the main European (from Mediterranean to subalpine) climates and landscapes. This article presents the results concerning the use of non-crop vascular food plants, numbering 132. Edible plants (75), as ...

The industrial agriculture system consumes fossil fuel, water, and topsoil at unsustainable rates. It contributes to numerous forms of environmental degradation, including air and water pollution, soil depletion, diminishing biodiversity, and fish die-offs. Meat production contributes disproportionately to these problems, in part because feeding grain to livestock to produce meat--instead ...

Great success has been achieved in increasing agriculture productivity to fulfill human needs during the second half of the 20th century. However, there will be much greater challenges in the future. Based on the current population growth rate of 1.4% per year, the world's population is forecast to increase from ...

Problems of over- and under-nutrition are changing with continued world population growth, rapid urbanization, and improved economic access to food. Still about 800 million lack reliable access to good quality and safe food. This article suggests action necessary to develop systems of sustainable food production in developing countries to help ...

The present paper presents a non-technical overview of contemporary developments in food supply, as seen from the standpoint of economic adjustment. The historical concerns over availability and price of food have now passed in the UK, and agriculture is no longer dominantly driven by the supply-side forces of new farming ...

This study reviews the major changes in global distribution of croplands during the 20th century. During the 20th century, the cropland base diminished greatly (from approximately 0.75 ha person-1 in 1900 to approximately 0.35 ha person-1 in 1990). This loss of croplands was not globally uniform: more than half the ...

The purpose of the present paper is to review the evidence in favour of food-based strategies to meet the challenges of micronutrient malnutrition in the developing world. Increasing dietary diversification is the most important factor in providing a wide range of micronutrients, and to achieve this objective in a development ...

BACKGROUND: The EFCOSUM (European Food Consumption Survey Methods) Project aims at harmonizing food consumption surveys in European countries within the perspective of an overall Public Health Monitoring Programme. Harmonization implies the need for a common framework of procedures and tools, that are applicable and feasible in all potentially interested countries. ...

At 81.7 million tonnes (Mt), commercial fertilizer nitrogen (N) accounts for approximately half of all N reaching global croplands today and supplies basic food needs for at least 40% of the population. The challenge is to continue to help meet that need while minimizing the risk of negative environmental impacts ...

The final permanent solution to micronutrient malnutrition in developing countries is a substantial improvement in dietary quality--higher consumption of pulses, fruits, vegetables, fish and animal products that the poor already desire but cannot presently afford. Meanwhile breeding staple foods that are dense in minerals and vitamins provides a low-cost, sustainable ...

This paper examines the impact of food and energy production on the global N cycle by contrasting N flows in the late-19th century with those of the late-20th century. We have a good understanding of the amounts of reactive N created by humans, and the primary points of loss to ...

The weights at birth of 4767 children born in the Tari area between 1979 and 1986 were analyzed after the children had been allocated to seven environmental zones. The environments differ in the quality of land from which the staple food, sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), is produced. Mean birthweight varies ...

Nitrogen was the most commonly yield-limiting nutrient in all pre-industrial agricultures. Only the Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia broke this barrier. The rising dependence on nitrogenous fertilizers, which represents the largest human interference in the biospheric N cycle, has two different roles. In affluent nations it helps to produce excess of ...

For the current generation of genetically modified (GM) crops the improvement of agronomic traits (e.g. herbicide tolerance, insect resistance) has been a major objective. The lack of obvious and direct benefits for the consumer has been a main point of criticism. Future trends will increasingly encompass the modification of quality ...

The world's 25 largest cities comprise only 4% of the global population, but they have substantial impacts on the environment at multiple scales. Here we review what is known of the biogeochemistry of these megacities. Climatic, demographic, and economic data show no patterns across cities, save that wealthier cities have ...

OBJECTIVE: To explore and describe the nutrition and health transition in Thailand in relation to social and economic changes, shifts in food consumption patterns and nutritional problems, as well as morbidity and mortality trends. DESIGN: This report reviews the nutrition and health situation and other related issues by compiling information ...

The rapid globalization of the world economy has increased the need for a knowledge base of reliable socio-cultural differences in perceptions, values and ways of thinking about new food technologies. Awareness of socio-cultural differences is important because collaborative efforts to deal with food hazards presuppose some understanding of where, how ...

Twenty-three genotypes of maitake (Grifola frondosa) from Asia, North America and Europe were compared for biological efficiency (BE), quality and crop cycle time. Significant differences among lines were found for BE and crop cycle time when mushrooms were produced on nutrient-supplemented (15% millet, 10% wheat bran and 0.2% gypsum) oak ...

The "more is better" credo is evaluated in terms of its harmful ramifications on human health, the environment, and the survival of the human race. The trend towards greater height and body weight in developed countries is evaluated in terms of its negative aspects on health and longevity. The benefits ...

Improved nutrition has potential to stem the growth in chronicdiseases seen in developed and developing countries alike. The abilityof the agricultural sector to feed a country's populationis an important factor in achieving better nutrition, particularlyamong populations that cannot buy imported food. How to address chronicdisease must be considered in the ...

After seven papers discussing specific examples of ecological sanitation projects, the workshop considered the background, motivation and feasibility of this technology. It was agreed that ecological sanitation could help tackle water scarcity, health protection and, by recycling water and nutrients into agriculture, food scarcity. Dense cities are probably unsuitable for ...

Competition is known to decrease growth and development rate in tadpoles, but the physiological basis for this phenomenon is poorly understood. We hypothesized that competition results in increased production of stress hormones and that these hormones are responsible for the suppression of growth and development. To test this hypothesis, we ...

In the relatively short time since their commercial introduction in 1996, genetically modified (GM) crops have been rapidly adopted in the United States GM crops are regulated through a coordinated framework developed in 1992 and administered by three agencies-the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that ensures the products are safe ...

Scale up 'we are what we eat' and nutrition is revealed as an aspect of world governance. The quality and nature of food systems has always tended to determine not only the health and welfare but also the fate of nations. The independence of nations depends on their development of ...

Understanding the events controlling endosperm development and itÃ¢Â€Â™s genetic regulation may give new possibilities for molecular farming, functional foods and fish feed. The cereal endosperm represents the worlds major source for food, feed and industrial raw material. When fully developed, the endosperm is a simple plant system consisting of four ...

Human efforts to produce food and energy are changing the nitrogen (N) cycle of the Earth. Many of these changes are highly beneficial for humans, while others are detrimental to people and the environment. These changes transcend scientific disciplines, geographical boundaries, and political structures. They challenge the creative minds of ...

From 1991 onward, the European Union (EU) member states have had to comply with the Nitrates Directive. The aim of this directive is to sustainably protect ground and surface waters from pollution with nitrogen (nitrate) originating from agriculture. Agriculture is, on an EU level, the largest single source of nitrate ...

Food transitions in history have been fast, violent processes in some cases, while on other occasions they have taken place slowly, overlapping the traditional food culture as food items are replaced by new ones. Despite the contribution of potato and maize to avoiding famine in Europe, the exclusive crop system ...